What distinguishes entrepreneurs from mere dreamers who don’t have the ability to actualise their new business idea? Continue reading “How do you deal with big customers who use dirty tricks to not pay your small business?”
Don’t let this happen to your small business
An iconic politician is auctioning off her silver tea set and other items to pay off a debt she owes to a school. A bus company faces liquidation if it does not repay a multi-million loan to its bank. A small business owner receives a red final notice for an overdue account from a debt collection agency – with grave warnings about loss of directorship under the companies act and sequestration.
A sign of the times. Consumers and businesses are finding it hard to pay back their debts as tough economic times continue without any end in sight.
The statistical release of February 2013, “Statistics of liquidations and insolvencies”, makes for concerning reading. A total of 271 liquidations were recorded in February 2013, showing a year-on-year increase of 35,5%. Continue reading “Don’t let this happen to your small business”
What you need to know about protecting your ideas
You’ve worked damned hard to grow your brilliant idea into the tangible form of a product or service. What protection do you have to prevent others from copying it? Is it worth the trouble to seek copyright, patent or trademark protection?
If you’ve done your homework, and strongly believe that your idea is unique, then it’s worth taking a look at having your intellectual property legally protected. It could be worth the cost because your brilliant new product or service gives you your entry into the marketplace as well as a competitive edge. Continue reading “What you need to know about protecting your ideas”
Do you experience these struggles when trying to come up with profitable ideas?
Introduction to my book, “Secrets of Generating Ideas For Profit: how to quickly and easily get viable business ideas”, by Chesney Bradshaw, published by Bell & Cray Business Books:
All it takes to make a million is to come up with a new idea for a product or service and you’ve got it made. A fantasy? Dream? A reality?
Small businesses, start-ups and solo entrepreneurs are coming up with new products and services all the time – just open up your business weekly or business section of your newspaper and you’ll see it. Or, go look around at shopping malls and see the number of new products that have been launched by small companies. Continue reading “Do you experience these struggles when trying to come up with profitable ideas?”
Where do you find ideas for nothing?
Ideas can make millions. Where do you find your million dollar idea?
Well, the first place you could look for ideas is your hobbies and interests. What have you done, are doing that could be turned into a profit machine?
Many entrepreneurs have got their new business ideas from their hobbies. Small businesses have been started from hobbies in baking, gardening, cycling, collecting share certificates – you name it – people have taken their hobbies, found a market for what they have to offer and slowly built successful businesses.
Ideas can come from problems and customer complaints. A young woman in Australia once heard a shop counter salesperson say, “If I had a dollar for every time someone asked for matte lipstick, I’d be rich.” Well, Poppy King listened and built a lipstick business. Listening can unearth a goldmine. Continue reading “Where do you find ideas for nothing?”
One overlooked secret to generating new ideas
It’s Tuesday today – the day that’s furthest away from Monday, the day when many feel at their lowest point of energy. It’s not for nothing that even songwriters have written about Monday blues such as “I don’t like Mondays”, “Manic Monday” and “Blue Monday”.
Interesting that songs about Tuesday are more upbeat: “Ruby Tuesday”, “Groovy Tuesday” and “Hooray for Tuesday”.
Mondays can drain our energy as we try to break away from the relaxed state of the weekend and recoil ourselves for the first day of the working week. Continue reading “One overlooked secret to generating new ideas”
What happened to entrepreneurial spirit? Finding the entrepreneur in you
When I was growing up in the seaside village of Kalk Bay, Cape Town, my father hired a spare outside room from the mother of a famous cricketer at the time.
The empty room was quickly filled with equipment that my brothers and I used for our watersports: surfboards, wetsuits, diving gear and fishing rods. I spent many hours in that room fixing surfboard dents or dings.
I didn’t know it then but this woman was being entrepreneurial by making some money on the side in her retirement years. Continue reading “What happened to entrepreneurial spirit? Finding the entrepreneur in you”
Where do you find the best business advice?
A few months back I was advising an entrepreneur was eager to market his service to other small business people but his ideas to sell his Internet offering sucked. Rather than tell him so and risk hurting his feelings, I suggested that we would go speak to some prospects to find out what selling methods worked best with them.
A small business owner who had been running his deli business for a few years told the entrepreneur that the only marketing he would respond to would be direct contact. The entrepreneur needed to call him and let him know what he could do to help grow his business. Continue reading “Where do you find the best business advice?”
Ideas crisis: 3 lucrative tools you can use to instantly pump ideas
Home owners faced the worst drought in half a century in the US. Water rationing and conservation became imperative. So what could home owners do about their lawns?
Many decided to paint their lawns with green organic dye. It’s incredible isn’t it, that homeowners would rather spray their lawns green than replace them with indigenous grasses or even endemic plants that need little water?
Although spraying residential lawns may be new, golf courses and athletic fields have used green spraying for years to get a more deep green lush appearance.
Dyeing grass makes water conservation screen around the gills but the point I’m making is that new ideas often come about when people face crises. They have to do something to change or respond to events. It brings challenges and opportunities.
Small business owners and start-ups aren’t usually looking for ideas to solve lawn water problems but they often need to come up with ideas in a hurry. Continue reading “Ideas crisis: 3 lucrative tools you can use to instantly pump ideas”
Ideaaccelerator.co.za founder introduces book on blogging for university students
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ideaaccelerator.co.za founder introduces book on blogging for university students
25 March 2013, Bloemfontein – Ideaaccelerator.co.za founder Chesney Bradshaw has just published “How You Can Make Money From Blogging”, a guide for university students on making income online through blogs.
Written by Chesney Bradshaw, who has 10 years’ experience as a corporate Webmaster and four years blogging on innovation site ideaaccelerator.co.za, the book is designed to give university students practical advice and proven strategies to help them start blogs that can be turned into viable businesses. Continue reading “Ideaaccelerator.co.za founder introduces book on blogging for university students”
